AISHE-J - The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
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Programmatic Assessment: A Paradigm Shift in Medical Education
No full text This article describes Programmatic Assessment, a significant innovation in Medical Education, which involves such a change in thinking and action as to merit the label paradigm shift. Programmatic Assessment is a radical approach to assessment throughout the medical education programme devised to address endemic problems in assessment and their deleterious effects on the curriculum and student learning. While the focus is on Medical Education the ideas, issues and approaches are relevant to professional education more broadly.
BA Business and Enterprise (BABE) – an impactful journey
No full textAlthough the Scottish Executive (2003) and Skills Sector Councils (Lifelong Learning UK, 2008) have published reports to highlight the value of lifelong learning, there is no easy path for advanced entry to degree programmes in the United Kingdom (UK). We became aware that there were an increasing number of mid-career workers who had achieved progression in their fields to a certain level without going to university, but now found themselves unable to advance without a degree qualification. The BA Business and Enterprise (BABE) was developed to address the learning needs of this audience by Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) in 2007, as a one year ‘top up’ qualification, flexibly delivered, for students with recognised non-degree level prior learning or significant workplace experience. It targets employees of small and medium-sized business enterprises and not-for-profits, as well as members of the armed forces, who wish to study while they continue to work. This paper plots BABE’s journey across national and cultural borders to meet the needs of a niche student market. It focuses on the experience of Tai Poutini Polytechnic (TPP), a small New Zealand (NZ) polytechnic, which is now teaching the degree in partnership with ENU, in a new and innovative educational arrangement for the NZ tertiary sector. The paper critically reviews the process by which an international qualification was adapted to suit the NZ market and the requirements of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).
Enterprise Education: Towards the Development of the Heutagogical Learner
No full textIn recent times we have witnessed attempts to demarcate entrepreneurship education from enterprise education. While there is useful value in further establishing the distinction and similarities between these two forms of education, such work merely scratches the surface of what is required to fully embed entrepreneurship and enterprise education in higher education. What is needed is a repositioning of entrepreneurship and enterprise education. The distinctive university-wide contribution that entrepreneurship and enterprise education is increasingly asked to make globally needs unpacking. No other domain of education is poised to help develop the specific attributes students need to navigate and succeed in the 21st century. However, much resistance to the embedding of entrepreneurship and enterprise education remains. This paper builds upon a new and innovative approach to plotting a pathway towards full integration within higher education for entrepreneurship and enterprise education. The key development to be offered for consideration is a new language from which to reposition and explain the role and nature of entrepreneurship and enterprise education. Building on recent works that have promoted the virtues of heutagogical learning for entrepreneurship and enterprise education, the components of a new student-oriented language are presented. This repositioning of entrepreneurship and enterprise education highlights the unique potential of heutagogical learning. This is illustrated by the manner in which this paper seeks to communicate with all educators, all students, and all education managers/policy makers. The ideas developed in this paper do not represent a simple pathway through which to walk entrepreneurship and enterprise education forward. They do however offer an opportunity to contemplate several pedagogical factors that continue to hold the development of our domain back. It is my hope that as the enquiring minds that consider the ideas developed within this paper will see cause to act. To act as an individual in the best interests of their students. To engage in deeper conversations around the ideas of heutagogy and academagogy. To ultimately act in ways that promotes the individual needs of every student we can assist to prepare for an exciting and challenging world of work.
Review of Lesson Plan: An Agenda for Change in American Higher Education, William G. Bowen and Michael S. McPherson; Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2016 A Lesson for Ireland?
No full textUsing Microsoft Excel to code and thematically analyse qualitative data: a simple, cost-effective approach.
No full textAs the number of learning and teaching continuing professional development (CPD) courses increases in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), so too does the accompanying number of learning innovations being implemented and evaluated. The evaluation process requires valid and reliable data collection and analysis procedures to be established. In many cases, qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups and free-text responses are employed for this purpose. These methods generate large volumes of data, which must be coded and analysed in a thorough and professional manner. While commercial software packages can assist in this analysis, in a difficult economic climate, the cost of campus-wide licenses for such can be quite prohibitive. In a recent publication aimed at enhancing the learning environment in practical sessions, Bree et al. (2014) implemented a simple, cost-effective technology-based analysis of captured focus group data with a widely used software suite. This report describes in detail the qualitative data analysis process designed and implemented by the two authors (a link to a screencast outlining the method is also provided). Ensuring data analysis processes are performed correctly will generate valid data, leading to an increase in the number of peer-reviewed publications describing learning and teaching innovations; with each of these ultimately enhancing the learning environment for students and developing higher-quality graduates. It is hoped this report will assist educators enrolling on learning and teaching courses, or those performing research projects in the area who are considering employing qualitative evaluation methods.
Exploratory Studies on the use of Experiential Learning in Entrepreneurship Education.
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of experiential learning inHigher Education, specifically entrepreneurship education. The paperproposes that experiential learning is best facilitated as a result of thelearner’s participation in practical events, which supports the creation ofexperiences and their subsequent reflection on these experiences. Currentapproaches to teaching entrepreneurship within Higher Education areanalyzed, as is the role experiential learning has to play. Findings suggest thatby providing suitable experiential learning opportunities, educators candevelop entrepreneurial capabilities in the learners and promote anentrepreneurial ecosystem. However, it is also important from the onset, thatstudents gain an understanding about entrepreneurship itself and the skillsthat are required to become more entrepreneurial. A case study of an existingreal-world entrepreneurial teaching environment is provided. The educators inIADT have already spent more than 10 years focusing on embeddingexperience into their entrepreneurial ecosystem. Therefore, as a result ofresearch into the role of experiential learning in entrepreneurship education,this paper allows reflection on these experiences and provides an opportunityfor their (re)-evaluation and future enrichment in the area of experientiallearning
Incubation Centres and the Teaching of Entrepreneurship: Bridging Theory and Practice
No full textThis paper argues that collaboration between Higher Education Institutions and Incubation Centres can contribute to the embedding of entrepreneurship in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The study aims to address the dearth of research on the teaching of entrepreneurship to non-business students, and to provide a framework to implement a proposed pedagogical approach. Enterprise Ireland has funded business incubation centres on college campuses across Ireland in order to provide a supportive environment for start-up companies. The study presented in this paper is based on the work of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) which has two Incubation Centres. The research question addressed is: How can incubation centres support the teaching of entrepreneurship to engineering undergraduate students? The theoretical framework for the study is based on Donald Schön’s seminal work on reflective practice. Action research - with particular emphasis on “doing action research in your own organisation” as proposed by Coghlan and Brannick – forms the basis of the methodological approach. The study makes a contribution by developing a process for collaboration between engineering students and incubation centres that can be replicated in other pedagogical situations
Quiz Mastery: Students as Bloggers and Testers in Pursuit of Grammatical Competence
No full textThis article considers the challenges confronted by instructors of composition and writing skills in higher education. Identifying key aspects of grammar, syntax, and punctuation, it argues that a grammatically informed terminology is helpful to learner-writers endeavouring to improve the clarity of their written assignments. To aid assimilation of this terminology, and the concepts it signifies, e-learning tools can be integrated into the curriculum so that students can consolidate knowledge through their own construction of it. As they create blogs and peer to peer quizzes, they become more theoretically and practically informed about the basis of effective writing practices.
Reflections on assessment in higher education 1998-2016 *
No full textThis paper is an exploration of my journey in assessment theory and practice as a teacher, lecturer, and an educational developer. When I moved to higher education eighteen years ago I promised myself that I would explore assessment and put theory into practice. In October 1998 I went from not being allowed to assess my own students to being required to do so in one day. This is a reflection on the consequences of that step in the form of a narrative of the theoretical and practical learning across that eighteen year period